Friday, April 8, 2011

Yea to my visitors from South Korea!

My baby boy, Monkey is from South Korea!!!  So excited that you have visited, please leave a comment.

Oh My Gosh! I am sooo hungry!

Yesterday and today I have just wanted to snack, snack, snack but what does one snack on when they are allergic? I found some sunflower seeds all zip locked up on the basement bar last night and went to town on them.   They were sooooo good and it was so great to just snack!  At this point, the house is pretty empty.  Tomorrow we will go to the Farmers Market and Whole Foods, but there is not much to snack on - or at least things I can snack on.  The kids have their stash of goldfish crackers and cheeze it mix but, nothing really for me.

I will be getting some 365 Sea Salt Potato Chips tomorrow along with more sunflower seeds and some Lundenburg rice cakes.  Perhaps I can find something else as well as hopefully hubby will be wrangling the littles while I shop.  Those are my snacks.  I can say I am doing much better in the drink department.  I discovered Divine Vodka, made in small batches in copper pots in MI!  Mix that with some grapes or watermelon blended up in the VitaMix and I have an awesome martini with pretty low calories since I'm just using the natural fruits with all the fiber, vs juicing.  Such a nice after dinner treat while relaxing and reading.

Tomorrow night we are going to a good friends house for dinner.  I am in charge of bringing the main course.  She wants salmon so I will go to WF and see if I can eat it, none the less, they will have a beautiful salmon dinner and I will see what I can eat for a main course and bring it.  I really do not want to eat farmed salmon.  I need to place an order from www.vitalchoice.com but waiting to see if my paper tax refund with my adoption credit will continue to be processed by our wonderful government before I place that order.  That reminds me, hubby and I need to plan a date afternoon where we go to Capital Grille for a nice fillet and then do some shopping after.  Perhaps next Sunday we can get this scheduled.

What are your favorite snacks???

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Exciting News

Last night was a breakthru for me!  It was the first time I actually ate out since my recent diagnosis.  Our good friends invited us to their club for dinner.  I ate a snack ahead of time and packed my Chobani but when I got there, the menu seemed wonderful and it might just be the place to try eating out again.  The menu even had a little blurb about notifying them of allergies and it was not crowded at all!

I had my choices narrowed down to the Ahi Tuna or the Filet.  Both had pro's and con's.  Ahi may be frozen and there is a small chance I might have a reaction to the filet due to citric acid.  But, the filet  sounded soooo good and I have never had a reaction in the past to meat, etc.  So, with my system clear after all of my careful eating I decided to order the filet.  I figured if I was to have a reaction, at least I would know it right away as I have been feeling really good lately.

Two glasses of a nice, quality red wine and a filet later NO ISSUES, none at night, none in the AM.  YAHOO!  Now,  if I stick to high end steak or seafood places and get something grilled with NOTHING on it or touching it I can try to eat out again.  Of course in moderation here, but geeze, even if I could go 2x a month that would be wonderful.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

100% Pure Rocks Con't

Ok, for some reason after I added the picture of the awesome foundation, the iMac locked up and I was not able to add the foundation on this site so I will keep typing and add it at the bottom of this post ;)
Anyways, I got home and washed my face and used the tinted moisturizer and foundation and my face looked gorgeous!  So bright and it was not the typical yellow color that never works with my skin tone.  I then applied the powder foundation and wow!  Went on so nice without the typical dryness!  I need to get an extra one of these to keep in my purse!
I feel so good about using this makeup knowing that they use Rice for the source of the vitamins!  There are a few things that have shea or coconut in them but lucky me, my skin is not so sensitive!  If you are interested, I am now a rep for 100% Pure through Alex and Von!  It is an awesome opportunity to support Women owned business who believe in natural and pure products!  Send me a comment if you are interested in trying these great products and I will help you determine what will work for you and your allergies.  Meanwhile, I am in LOVE!  This product is incredible and is better than any makeup/cream I have spent major $$$$ on at Neiman Marcus!  Bonus is I can read and understand EVERY ingredient.  For those readers who have babies (mine are still my babies at 6 & 7) the kids line is INCREDIBLE!!!


Healthy Flawless Skin Foundation Powder with SPF 20
HEALTHY FLAWLESS SKIN FOUNDATION POWDER with SPF 20
100% Natural, 100% Vegan, Gluten free
Super lightweight face powder to give you a beautiful, flawless, poreless complexion. Use alone or over our tinted moisturizer. All natural formula packed full of anti-aging vitamins, antioxidants and skin purifying eucalyptus, soothing calendula, chamomile and rose, oil absorbing rice powder and flattering color from fruits and vegetables. Does not contain talc, chemical preservatives, fragrances or any other toxins
Colors:
Color Chart: Creme, White Peach, Peach Bisque, Golden Peach, Toffee
Ingredients:Rice Powder, all or some of the following fruit pigments: White Peach, Golden Peach, Apricot, Cocoa Bean, Papaya, Pomegranate, Cranberry, Strawberry, Raspberry, Cherry and Cabernet Grape, Vitamin E (a-tocopherol), Eucalyptus Leaf Powder, Vitamin A (a-palmitate), Vitamin C (ascorbyl palmitate), Flax Seed Oil, Chamomile, Calendula, Rose, Pomegranate Seed Oil, Avocado Butter, White Tea Powder, Grape Seed Powder, may contain mica (natural shimmer mineral)
SUNSCREEN ACTIVE INGREDIENTS: 10% Titanium Dioxide and 5% Zinc Oxide
Net wt.0.316 oz / 9 g
US $26.00

100% PURE ROCKS!

My first shipment of 100% Pure came!  All of my makeup basics and it ROCKS!  I had to wash my face and try the tinted moisturizer and the foundation powder ASAP.  The rest (eye shadow, cheeks, lips, etc will be tried in the am as part of my normal get ready for work routine)
I was a bit nervous about selecting the color,  here is the chart.  Awesome how they use a real person to model so you can really see the colors:

Facebook Swatches

The tinted moisturizer I ordered is in White Peach:

Fruit Pigmented Tinted Moisturizer with SPF 20
FRUIT PIGMENTED TINTED MOISTURIZER
With SPF 20 (sheer to medium coverage)
100% Natural, 100% Vegetarian, Gluten free
Tinted with natural fruit and vegetable pigments to give your complexion a flawless appearance while feeding your skin with nourishing white tea, acai oil, pomegranate oil and vitamins. SPF 20 protects your skin against the sun’s harmful UVA (ultra violet aging) and UVB (ultra violet burning) rays while antioxidants protect your skin from other environmental hazards such as pollution, smog, smoke, exhaust, etc.
Colors:
Color Chart: Creme, White Peach, Peach Bisque, Golden Peach, Toffee
Ingredients: Pigments of Peach, Apricot, Carrot, Pomegranate, Cocoa Bean, Goji Berry and Tomato, White Tea, Cucumber Juice, Aloe Juice, Acai and Pomegranate Oil, Vitamin E (a-tocopherol), Vitamin C (ascorbyl palmitate), Rice Starch, Candelilla Wax, Extracts of Rosemary, Oregano, Thyme, Grapefruit Seed, Japanese Honeysuckle, Goldenseal & Cinnamon
SUNSCREEN ACTIVE INGREDIENTS: 15% Titanium Dioxide and 10% Zinc Oxide
Net wt.1.8 oz / 50 g
 US $32.00

Monday, April 4, 2011

Cheese oh Sweet Cheese

So, tonight I ventured to try some Gorgonzola Piccante from Italy on top of my grilled venison. Yummy! Got it from Whole Foods and so far so good.  Had some venison marinated in the sulfate free Our Daily Red with Garlic with the cheese and organic shrooms on top!   The plan for tomorrow night is venison burgers stuffed with the 365 sharp cheddar and Gorgonzola cheeses.
One of my orders from 100% Pure come in tomorrow.  I will be soooo happy to have a real foundation, lip gloss, mascara, etc. that I can use!!!!  More bath and stuff will be coming on Thursday!  I tried the mineral makeup route and it dried my skin out way too much!
I got some products from dakotafree.com and gfsoap.com - the shampoo and conditioner seem to work great, my family hates the smell of the hand soaps and the face moisturizer is just not as good as 100% pure for my face.  This is so much trial and error but I am feeling so much better so it is worth it!

What have you changed in your beauty routine since your allergy diagnosis??? Come on, comments people, please!!! lol

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Shopping Fun

Well, I managed to go shopping today for a new wardrobe.  Hubby told me the other day my clothes are too big and I should get some new stuff...Ok, sure.  So, I had Inky and Dinky with me (their shopping names as it was like herding cats in the stores)  We went to a village where the stores are all outside and I found some pants at GAP, a sweater at Parisian and then we went to White House/Black Market.  LOVE that store!  The sales ladies there asked what I was looking for, I told them and before I knew it there were like 50 things in the dressing room.  They gave me about half of that in black pants and jackets, which I do not need at all.

So, after weeding through those I found some cute black jean capri pants, two black tops and a black sweater with a belt.  Plus I have $75 off next time I come in.  Plus they said I can make an appt if I call ahead they will have more things ready for me!  See, allergies do have a bonus side to them!  I got all of the junk food out of my life and all the processed foods and I get new clothes!  YEA Me!

Now, I just need to get a few more pieces and some shoes and here I come Spring!!!  I also went thru my closet again and got rid of all of the too big clothes.  Im going to spend sometime tonight organizing by outfit and putting matching jewelry with each outfit.  Fun stuff!  Inky and Dinky even got to go to the toy store where they purchased this cool magnetic dart board to play with!

After we put all of our packages in the Burban, we headed into Whole Foods to get some yummies for the week.  This week I got a watermelon (granted it was over $6 for a quarter of one but I need to mix up my fruit) some blood oranges which are now juiced and in the freezer with some potato vodka for an evening drink later when Hubby gets home, some mushrooms to go with the venison tomorrow, a lovely slice of Ahi Tuna that I just sauteed with some EVOO after I worked out.  Hmm, kind of a run on sentence but lets see, what else was there?  Oatmeal, Organic Ice Cream for Kids, Organic French Fries for them, some bread for them, some 365 Sea Salt Potato chips to try later with my drink (I heard they were safe online), and a delicious smelling pizza that I just got done baking for the kiddies.  Plus, more things that I won't bore you with.

Everything has been going good.  Granted I will never have a glass of non-organic wine in a restaurant again, gave me a horrible head ache the next day.  But that is the only reaction I have had lately.  Not sure if pineapple made me a bit anxious lately but I will take a break from it for a while.

What foods have you had luck with lately?